It's like the blind leading the blind...or the humble leading the blind...or the blind leading the humble.

Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. It's not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious -- but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves.

Mar 02, 2005

From The Notepad Of Bud, A Level 5 Teacher

I FOUND BUD THE TEACHER at this week's Carnival of Education from EdWonks. Bud is excited to have discovered blogging, and his excitement is definitely contagious. His first post, in January of this year, begins with "I am beginning this blog because I am a teacher and I am in need of an education." Bud seems like the kind of teacher that on any given day expects to learn as much from his students as they learn from him. I am not surprised that he does not teach in a public school.

Lately, Bud is impressed by how much blogs extend our thinking and learning skills:

So, yes, for me, at least in these beginning stages, the blog will be
the content management system, to some degree. But the end product, I
hope, will be the set of thinking and learning skills hiding inside
"blogging." Blogs are management, blogging is content.

I agree wholeheartedly. I usually do not know for sure what I even think about the topic when I click "Create Post" and start typing. My first attempt at the post is almost entirely a discovery process, and only after several paragraphs do I stumble upon my real conclusion.

In the meantime, I've asked a million related questions and searched the Internet for supporting references (and I have a browser window open for each inquiry...) I've also probably used the thesaurus at answers.com several times to help find more precise words.

I practice editing the post several times until it seems like the statements run in a reasonable order. Then I add links. And preview it, take a break, preview it, take a break, preview it, and publish it. Finally I check the links one more time and take a long break.

But once the post is published, not only have I added another entry to my learning portfolio, I have an electronic record of my latest finding that anybody can share, search or reference.

Bud, if you haven't already, be sure and read Hugh Hewitt's book Blog so you can put the power of the "blog portfolio" into a historical context as well as an educational one.

UPDATE 2/3/05: In a kind email today, Bud writes:

I wanted to thank you for the very kind and very flatteringcomments in your blog today...However, I need to let you know that, although I teach at an alternative high school, I am a public school teacher.

I apologize for the mistake. I had read the website pretty thoroughly yesterday, but for some reason didn't look at the site's address.